How the Working-Class Home Became Modern, 1900-1940

In 1900, the average American family still lived by kerosene light, ate in their kitchen, and used an outhouse. In 1940, electric lights, dining rooms, and bathrooms were the norm as the traditional working-class home was fast becoming modern. This lecture will tell the story of how average Americans, including Granite Staters, transformed their typical dwellings from a primitive, premodern home life into an industrialized, modern domesticity–a transformation without precedent, either before or after, in American history. Come hear Professor Hubka's telling of how a "middle majority" of Americans first obtained  modern domestic improvements at the beginning of the 20th century.